Claimer: My Blog, My POV

Occasionally, I will mention my job, my public service activities, and other aspects of my life to offer my readers a better perspective on where I'm coming from. But to be clear:

"The views that I express represent my own opinions, based on my own education and experience, not the opinions of any other entity, party, or group to which I belong. I give these opinions in my individual capacity, as a private citizen, and as someone who gives a good gosh darn about his community, his country, and the truth."

Well, if the GOP had been paying attention to something other than their talking points, they could have tested their hypotheses against reality at the site of their big Republican National Committee meeting in Hawaii. Our 50th state has had a health plan in place that does just what the Republicans say will destroy America: the state has required employers to extend really good health benefits to every employee working more than 20 hours a week.

Now you can certainly argue that other factors keep Hawaiians healthier and out of hospitals, thus reducing demand and keeping costs down. But the Republicans tell us that government mandates in health care will lead to disaster... when the very state that hosted their fancy RNC gathering is a health care paradise relative to the mainland. Hawaii is a great counterexample to the fallacious arguments the GOP has used to justify its obstructionism on health care reform.

Here's the video from The Daily Show on the topic. Nobody denies reality better than Republicans: